I think the toggle action is overcomplicated and probably what caused it to malfunction more than the 1911. More parts = more chance for failure.

Duff: Thanks so much for the very interesting and potentially useful information for Luger owners. I confess that I have not owned a Luger since about 1973 when I sold off a DMW for a hefty sum. Beautiful piece but difficult to get either magazine to adequately feed it. Regardless my previous post was a deliberate attempt to confound and create a few laughs by implying that I am the owner of the mystery missing second .45 ACP Luger. If you are offended I apologize.

OH --
From what I understand the Army expressed a preference for grip safeties. Some Lugers did have grip safeties, but not the ones used by the German military, I don't think.

Murdock32 -- hang onto that pistol. If the price of the other one keeps falling you can pick it up and have one for each hand!

The story I heard was although the Luger was ergonomically better and a natural pointer. It was too finely fitted and susceptible to the dirt of battle. It was also not that easy to break down and clean. But most of all America wanted a gun that was American made. Something that was mentioned when we switched to the Beretta.

Isawooa, is your piece entirely made of identical serial numbered parts? Many that returned Stateside and Canada after the WW's were not. As they failed in-field, parts were scavenged during the campaigns to maitain working status. Pieces with all same numbered parts are valuable these days. May I suggest buying a new/ other barrel? The largest working inventory on Lugers I've seen is at Collectors Firearms in Houston, TX (www.collectorsfirearms.com). My own has two diff numbers. It is persnickity with feeding diff brands of cartridges as I have a few diff clips, but it shoots all of them very well. Dad took it from a Germ naval officer during the end of WWII. Its is a PO8.
Thanks!

Earlier tests of the 7.65 and 9mm Lugers conducted by the Army showed the pistol to be insufficiently reliable. However, the .45 impressed the Army was impressed enough that they ordered more.

Nothing compared to the 1911 in the Army tests. It fired 6,00 rounds without a stoppage, beating the other two finalists, the Savage and the colt.

In 1960 the "million dollar" Luger was test fired 150 times without a stoppage.

Hmmmm. Looks like the commercially manufactured Lugers also had a grip safety. Must be a story in there. Whataya say, Phil?

As I was reading this I started day dreaming about my Luger being 45, so much so that I ran to the safe and grabbed the pistol to only be brought back to reality. Keep these articles coming Phil, but I will say that there is a gun on my wishlist now that I will never own.

Lugers are more reliable with European ammo, which is a lot hotter than ours. It would seem to me that the Luger basic configuration is a good one, as the fixed barrel should make for an accurate piece, and no slide means it could be a compact, light one. Now that we have precision automatic machine cutting, the complexities of the design shouldn't mean as much now as they did when the whole piece had to be hand-fitted. And as the ..45 is fairly low pressure, it isn't hard on guns. Hey, gun makers, I have a great idea...

Interesting, Harold. Thanks for that. I always thought the grip safety on 1911 was sort of useless overkill. That explains it.

It has been said that John Browning did not care for grip safeties, and therefore omitted that feature when designing the P-35 (Browning Hi-Power).
Actually, Browning was following the specifications of the French military in designing the Hi-Power, just as he followed the specs of the U.S. military in designing the 1911, which did have a grip safety.
The French government instead preferred a magazine disconnect safety, and demanded that feature in the specs for the P-35 Hi-Power.